Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Marketing Guns to Children

By Anna North February 19, 2016 10:05 amFebruary 19, 2016 10:05 am

Photo

Credit Brandon Magnus for The New York Times

The gun industry markets a variety of products explicitly to children, a new report shows, from armed stuffed animals to lighter versions of rifles. And some see kids as a vital group of future gun buyers who need to be brought into the fold at a young age.

The report, called “Start Them Young” and issued on Thursday by the Violence Policy Center, lists a variety of firearms meant at least partly for children. It mentions the Crickett rifle, a gun made for children by the company Keystone Sporting Arms. Keystone’s website and some of its merchandise bear the image of “Davey Crickett,” a gun-wielding cartoon insect. The company sells Davey Crickett hats, dog tags and pins, as well as a Davey Crickett Beanie Baby, listed as “not for children under three years of age.”

Keystone’s website also sells books featuring “Little Jake,” a boy who uses his gun to bring down a bear and save an African village from a marauding elephant. The publisher of the books says Little Jake is actually older than he looks: “Little Jake is a fictional character in his late teens. While small in stature so that young children may relate to him, Little Jake is old enough to hunt and fish safely on his own without adult supervision.”

“Start Them Young” also cites the rise of .22-caliber versions of higher-caliber rifles, often produced with lightweight materials. According to an article in the trade magazine Shooting Sports Retailer, “these guns bring the coolness and fun of the tactical rifle to kids and less serious shooters.” The website of the retailer Gander Mountain describes one such weapon thus: “Designed for the indoor range and the youth shooter, this Carbon15 .22 LR Rimfire lightweight is sure to add new dimensions to your Bushmaster shooting pleasure. Operational controls are functionally and ergonomically identical to AR-15 type rifles.”

The report makes the case that the gun industry and some gun-rights advocates see putting guns in the hands of children as a crucial recruitment move. In a 2012 report, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade association, explicitly recommended that gun manufacturers market to children: “To help hunting and target shooting get a head start over other activities, stakeholders such as managers and manufacturers should target programs toward youth 12 years old and younger. This is the time that youth are being targeted with competing activities.” An online ad for a Marlin XT rifle features a father and son and boasts, “FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR SPORT, IT’S THE MOST POWERFUL FIREARM ON EARTH.” And the editor-in-chief of the magazine Junior Shooters wrote in 2012:

Each person who is introduced to the shooting sports and has a positive experience is another vote in favor of keeping our American heritage and freedom alive. They may not be old enough to vote now, but they will be in the future. And think about how many lives they will come in contact with that they can impact!

In 2015, at least 282 people were accidentally shot by a child under 18, according to the group Everytown for Gun Safety. This year, the count is already up to 33.

And while weapons designed for children may be lighter, they are still deadly — “Start Them Young” notes that a five-year-old Kentucky boy accidentally killed his two-year-old sister with a Crickett rifle in April 2013. He had gotten the gun as a birthday present.